Leonardo is the new supercomputer that projects, Italy towards the exascale class of high performance computing for research and innovation. The project for the Leonardo system was presented by Cineca representing Italy in agreement with the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) and the International School of Advanced Studies (SISSA) and approved by the European Joint Undertaking EuroHPC.
The selection of eight sites for supercomputing centres across the EU has been announced in June 2019, by the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking. These new supercomputers will be made accessible to European researchers, industry and businesses, to develop new applications in areas such as artificial intelligence and personalised medicine, drug and material design, bio-engineering, weather forecasting, and combatting climate change.
An event to celebrate the signature of hosting agreements with the EuroHPC JU took place in November, in Strasburg, with the representatives of these eight sites (hosting entities) and Mariya Gabriel, European Commissioner for Digital Economy and Society.
Cineca's president Eugenio di Sciascio stated: "An extraordinary result, of which I am proud - said Prof. Di Sciascio - In my role as President of Cineca I am pleased to represent the team that includes INFN and Sissa, and with the participation of Austria, Hungary, Slovenia and Slovakia. With the support of the Ministry of University and Research it was possible to fulfill the objective of bringing the world of Italian research into Europe as a protagonist, and to contribute to laying the foundations for concretely realizing the European Research System. The objective is to allow European public and private research to compete globally on the issues that will characterize the future of our society, such as personalized medicine, climate change, sustainable energy, new materials. Europe has asked Italy to support this unified vision, which is projected into the future: our commitment will be strong and concrete”.
The financed project for the three pre-exascale supercomputers are:
- LUMI, CSC Finland,
- Marenostrum 5 BSC,
- Leonardo - Cineca
Leonardo has been presented within the European Researchers Night, during an event with the directors and representatives of the most important Italian Research institutions, universities, researchers, and Roberto Viola Director General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology (conference call).
The new supercomputer will have a peak performance of 200+ PFlop/s, 3+ PB of RAM, 150 PB I/O, 150PB of storage.
- More technical information about the new supercomputer are available.
The tenders for the supercomputers have been published: Acquisition, delivery, installation and hardware and software maintenance of Precursors to Exascale supercomputers for the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC).
- supercomputer LUMI for hosting entity CSC, the Finnish IT center for science.
- supercomputer Marenostrum 5 for hosting entity Barcelona supercomputer center.
- Supercomputer Leonardo for Hosting Entity CINECA.
Ready to find out more about Leonardo? Check out the video we realised to present the supercomputer to the general audience!
